Woman injured by Mount Shasta lightning strike

One person was injured and a tree was struck Friday evening, July 26 when a series of lightning strikes touched down in Mount Shasta.

Skye Kinkade

One person was injured and a tree was struck Friday evening, July 26, when a series of lightning strikes touched down in Mount Shasta.

A 28 year old Mount Shasta woman was injured when electricity from a strike was conducted through a metal railing at an apartment building, said Mount Shasta Police Department chief Parish Cross.

The woman was leaning against a railing at 700 Pine Street at about 7:30 p.m. when the incident occurred, Cross said.

She was taken to Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta for treatment of injuries.

At about the same time, a tree was struck on Marjorie Street, between Alta Vista Manor's parking lot and the street, according to the Mount Shasta Police Department.

The tree, which was about 35 to 40 feet tall, was split in half by the bolt and had to be cut down by the Mount Shasta Fire Department for safety purposes.

Northern California took about 1,400 lightning strikes, with about half of them happening in Siskiyou County, according to the US Forest Service, lighting several small fires on the Shasta Trinity National Forest and the Klamath National Forest.

According to the Forest Service's online incident information database, the 11 fires on the Shasta Trinity total about 10 acres. Many have been extinguished.

Smokejumpers and crews on scene, at a three to four acre fire on Girard Ridge in the Mt. Shasta/McCloud Management Unit, with engines working their way in.

Lana Costenza, who was working at Mt. Shasta Tire Factory on N. Mt. Shasta Blvd. said at one point on Friday evening, a bolt struck somewhere out in front of the store near the parked car her daughter, Erin Beauchene, was sitting in.

The strike rattled the entire building and shook the ground, she said.

She described it as "a bright white light, like I was seeing the end of the tunnel," she said.

The storm also brought something more welcome: a double rainbow stretched across the Mt. Shasta area.

Photos of the rainbow, lightening and thunderclouds, contributed by our readers, can be found at our Facebook page at this link.